Nintendo has swung back into profit after a weaker yen helped the video games
giant offset poor sales of its 3DS and Wii U consoles.

Nintendo said net profit rose to 7.1bn yen (£46.8m) in the year to the end of March, reversing last year's 43.2bn yen loss. However, Wednesday's announcement fell short of the 14bn yen forecast by the company in January.

At the operating level, the company posted a loss of 36.4bn yen, from orignal estimates of 20bn yen. The company said the loss was "primarily due to the sales of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U being weaker than expected.

"While foreign exchange gains in non-operating income increased, ordinary income and net income became smaller than forecast," it said in a statement.

However, the company remained upbeat, and forecast an eight-fold jump in net profit for the current fiscal year. The firm behind Donkey Kong and Super Mario said it expected to earn 55 billion yen in the year to March 2014 and said it would concentrate on overcoming the delays that have plagued Nintendo's latest Wii U console "in order to regain momentum for the platform".

Nintendo struggled as it competes with Sony and Microsoft, makers of the PlayStation and Xbox, which are also battling for control of a sector worth alomst £30bn a year.

The trio have faced tough economic conditions in their key US and European markets, they are also fending off a challenge from cheap - or sometimes free - downloadable games for smartphones and tablets.